Michelmersh reports much improved results

AIM-listed brick and clay supplier reveals £208,000 pre-tax profit, compared with £13,000 in the same period last year.

Michelmersh, the UK brick and clay supplier, today announced interim results much improved compared with a year ago.

The AIM-listed company revealed a £208,000 pre-tax profit for the six months to 31 May 2005, compared with £13,000 in the same period last year.

Turnover rose 5.7% to £9.2m. The company said that gross margins improved 6% to 30% as a results of efficiencies and despite a 40% rise in energy costs.

The board did not recommend the payment of an interim dividend but said that it expected to recommend a final dividend at year end.

Chairman Eric Gadsden warned: “We are not completely immune from the general softening within our market, nor from the challenge of recovering increased energy costs, which will have an impact on the group’s profitability for the year. We therefore remain cautiously optimistic about the future.”

Share rose by 1.5p, almost 2%, to 84p when the results were announced.